black madonna, pilgrims and stone cairns

[Maura Santangelo]

> I live in Australia, a practising buddhist with
> a catholic background. In my planning and preparation, the "less is
> more"
> approach shines bright. It is this and the diversity of mind(s) on this
> list, so far that I am enjoying on the road already...
Dear Helen from Australia,

About the Black madonna, I am familiar with one in Loreto Italy
(pilgrimage site in the Marche near the city of Ancona on the Adriatic
coast) having been there as a child, but I also found more on:
www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/blackm/blackm.html#tab

Like you, I am a practicing Buddhist and just completed the pilgrimage
to Mount Kailash and lake Manasarovar in Tibet.   Some tibetan pilgrims
went around the mountain (32 miles, and over a 19000 ft pass) by doing
full body prostrations.  They were an example on how to travel light.
They carried only what they wore and what food they had they carried in
their coats.  They slept wherever they stopped near the trail, never
seemed to tire and were ready to spare smiles and encouragement
throughout.   Reminded me of stories of medieval pilgrims doing
pilgrimages  by genuflecting, or genuflecting going up stairs in sacred
places.

In previous messages on this lisserv there has been mention of leaving
stones at one site on the camino.  There is a tradition throughout the
Himalayas in which people leave a small stone on top of cairns at
different places along routes.  Some say that it is a wish to return,
some say that it is an offering to the spirit of the place.  these
types of stone cairns are to be found all along trials in the Himalayan
region.  perhaps it is nothing more than trail marker maintenance.
In any case at the end of the Kailash pilgrimage many pilgrims who had
prostrated the whole way had left the leather aprons and wooden mitten
they had used while prostrating at the cairns in the last few miles of
the trail.  It seems analogous to the burning of the clothes of
pilgrims at the end of the camino.

I would be interested in hearing about similar cross cultural
pilgrimage stories, if anyone has any tp share.

Maura